Operating questions

[Sierra Sherpa]

Hello all,
Thought I'd ask a couple of "operator" questions for my .45-70 Handi.
(1) You're out hunting and looks like a shot is going to present itself.  You pull the hammer back to full cock, but the deer/elk/bear vanish into the timber.  How do you all make the gun safe?  Do you thumb the hammer, lightly trip the trigger and ease the hammer down?  At full cock, can you open the breech and remove the shell -- maybe slip in a dummy snap cap and let the hammer safely fall -- or does doing so constitute an unsafe condition in itself?
(2) I read somewhere on another forum here on Graybeard not to open a breechblock without first moving the hammer to half cock.  To do so risked breaking the firing pin or something like that, according to the poster.  Would that kind of precaution, in any manner, apply to our break-open Handis?
Appreciate hearing your thoughts.

[petemi]

Just let the hammer down holding it with your thumb and don't pull the trigger all the way back.  There is no half cock.  It is a transfer bar safety.  The hammer won't hit the firing pin unless the trigger is pulled all the way to the rear.  Remember that when you are shooting too or you'll have FTFs. (fail to fire).

Pete

[thejanitor]

If you do not have a hammer spur (extension) with some low mounted scopes it can be hard to do and feel safe at all. but if you are holding the hammer and you pull the trigger just enough to start the hammer foreward and then get your finger back off the trigger without holding full back it will be ok, But you still want to keep the weight of the hammer spring from dropping the hammer hard.
Pete is right, but I just wanted to add the times I got a new gun put together I went shooting and forgot to put a hammer spur (extension) on the rifle before going to the range it can feel very unsafe trying to get your thumb back from between the hammer and the scope while un-cocking it.
   thejanitor

[bikerbeans]

When hunting, with gloves on, I will put my left thumb (i am RHed) across the top of the receiver in front of the hammer and shielding the transfer bar, point the gun into the ground and then pull the trigger.  The hammer will smack into my thumb, not the t-bar, and the t-bar falls and I extract my gloved digit.  One will only forget and do this one time without a glove on.       I do this because I don't use hammer extensions and it is easier than trying to grab the hammer with gloves.
 
BB

[LaOtto222]

A while back, I was thinking hammer extension and said hammer spur. I got told about it right away. The point I was attempting to make got lost, because we were worried so much about nomenclature. The hammer spur is the part of the hammer that you put your thumb on to pull it back. Usually it it heavily cross hatched or has a crisscross pattern on it. A hammer extension goes on the hammer spur and sticks out to the side so you can do the same thing with clearance for your thumb to the side of the hammer spur. It is splitting hairs, in my opinion, but people will call you on it; at least they called me on it.

With a Handi Rifle, once you cock it, the action locks up so you can not open it. As mentioned, there is no half cock, so you need to lower the hammer carefully to get it into a safe condition. You just have to make sure you have control of the hammer from the time you pull the trigger to release the hammer until in is in the rest position with the trigger not being pulled after the hammer is released.



Good Luck and Good Shooting

[cwlongshot]

I agree with the guys...

Something for you to try with a empty gun or if able to maybe try with just a primed case so IF you do not do it correctly, you will know.

Anyway, IMHO, Pete hit on it best. With current production frames as well as ones produced for the past 20+ years. The transfer bar or disconnector will block the firing pin from being hit. SO Holding the hammer ext, touch the trigger, allow the hammer to move forward just a touch and REMOVE firget form TRIGGER. The hammer will continue to be able to fall, but the transfer bar/disconnector will drop out of the way and not allow contact with the firing pin...

Older guns had a "rebounding" hammer but still no half cock. One of mine is from the '20's and its a rebounding hammer. So I do not remember any H&R SS having a "half cock".


BUT your best advice is to remember, this is a safety and a safety is a mechanical device that can and will fail. Your best "safety" is the 10+- # sitting on your shoulders... Yup it's your head! Remember your training... Don't point it at anything you don't wish to kill or destroy and only point in safe direction, then lower the hammer carefully.

[TopperT]

Just me, but in a situation as you have described, I will FIRST take off my glove (if wearing one) so that I have a more positive trigger feel.  I might add, using an empty case, I usually give the unloading drill a few workouts every so often to keep it all fresh in my mind.

[Sierra Sherpa]

Thanks for the good tips fellas.  LaOtto222, I did not know you could not open the action at full cock so that answers that question.  I do keep snap caps in my .45-70 Handi and Uberti Highwall so I should be able to run the drills safely.  Talk about a "Mutt and Jeff" comparison when stood up side-by-side next to each other, given the Highwall's 30" octagon barrel.  Wanted to hunt the High Sierras with a .45-70 but figured the Highwall was too pretty and a mite unweildy in the thick stuff.  My Handi takes care of that.  Good shootin' to ya.